Continuing with ideas from the book. This time, "Special Places".
Remember to share:
Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!
Remember to share:
Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!
Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.
The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right!
At this post, Ruth Bowen Hersey shared a poem by Pablo Neruda lamenting why he has never made a broom. As most of us can connect, we, too, have rarely made anything that is needed around the house. We are proud when we can figure out how to build Ikea furniture, or how to clean out the vacuum, but rarely really "make" anything. It connected me to an old memory of more fun at a grandparents' farm. Those grandparents did everything, made butter and biscuits, kept sheep, sheared and used the wool, canned all the vegetables and fruits, and kept chickens and geese, sold the eggs, raised more. That's a short list!
It’s Good to Have a Barn for Stuff
On the mountain in the backyard,
(really the tiny hilltop of the root cellar,)
I dragged the old flattop wagon up,
flung myself on and raced down,
into the grass,
again, then again,
so many times it made a track.
This wagon came from old wagon parts
kept when a metal top had rusted out,
thrown in the barn, for someday?
These wagon parts might have been
coasted on by my dad.
My grandpa cut an old piece of wood to fit,
screwed on the wheel assembly,
a wagon for belly-flop riding.
like sledding in the summer.
Linda Baie ©
What a wonderful memory. People definitely used to be more resourceful and recycle things more. Sledding in summer sounds like fun. :)
ReplyDeleteA great description of kid fun and caring, handy forebears!
ReplyDeleteHead on over to Wild Rose Reader, Linda. I have some good news for you!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's good to have a barn for stuff. Our in-law townhouse is attached to the back of my daughter's antique house--built circa 1790. A door in our home opens into the barn. We keep lots of "stuff" in there.
Thanks everyone for agreeing about recycling & keeping stuff, especially in barns. A shed in the city helps & I don't even have one of those!
ReplyDeleteYour memories serve you well, Linda. This one brings back some of mine that I had long forgotten. I like that the grandpa recycled.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol, happy that it perked a memory for you, too.
DeleteI am fascinated with people who can patch things together to create something sturdy and useful. This is such a unique memory. I'm glad you were able to capture it so well to share with us!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me, too, Kiesha. Thank you.
DeleteI am with you on the ride. This is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret. It is true. I loved that wagon & that hill!
DeleteYour title made me laugh out loud. We have a garage for stuff and a carport for cars! I love all the connections to times ago. I like to try my hand at fixing things, and can mend clothes, but I've never tried mixing parts to make something new.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cheriee. My husband could & saved so many things, piled in our garage, too. I always wished we at least had a shed. It depends on what one did as a kid I think. I don't mind figuring out things, but never have really built anything like this 'new' wagon.
DeleteThis poem fills my heart up to overflowing. We love our old barn, and your childhood stories and memories are full of the simple good magic of home. I am transported by this poem. xx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy. The times spent with all my grandparents were very special & still mean so much to me.
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